Astros and Rockets games and other programming on Comcast SportsNet Houston is of greater local interest than regional interest, which limits CSN Houston’s comparative value to viewers across a five-state area, an executive with Suddenlink Communications said today in a letter to the network.

Patty McCaskill, senior vice president and chief programming officer of Suddenlink, was responding to a letter written by Matt Hutchings, president and general manager of CSN Houston, which is attempting to negotiate carriage agreements with Suddenlink and other cable, satellite and telco carriers across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico.

In the letter, McCaskill drew a difference between what she described as “regional” sports networks such as Fox Sports Southwest and “local” networks such as CSN Houston.

“The regional sports networks we offer on our expanded basic tier across a multi-state geography, such as Fox Sports Southwest, have rights to the games of professional and college teams from multiple cities within their distribution area,” McCaskill wrote. “CSN Houston does not; it focuses on professional teams from one city.

“Accordingly, CSN Houston is comparable to other local sports networks, and for that reason, we would be delighted to discuss terms with CSN Houston that are comparable to those we have discussed and/or agreed to with other local sports networks, including distribution that is focused in the relevant, local area.”

Suddenlink, which services Kingwood and Humble as part of its 16-state network with about 1.4 million subscribers, has offered to carry CSN Houston as part of a specialized sports package that would require subscribers to pay an additional monthly fee.

CSN Houston, however, wants to be on the same expanded basic package as Fox Sports Southwest, which carries the Rangers, Mavericks, Stars, Hornets and Spurs and also airs Big 12 events and, in Texas, the University Interscholastic League high school championship football games. CSN Houston aired some high school football games and has access to some college games from the NBC Sports Group, but not the Big 12.

The financial issue in question is the monthly subscriber fee that Suddenlink would pay CSN Houston for access to the channel.

McCaskill’s letter was in response to a Hutchings letter in which he said the Astros and Rockets on CSN Houston should receive comparable carriage across the five-state area to Rangers and Mavericks games on Fox Sports Southwest. He also said that if Suddenlink would agree to broad carriage, “your customers can begin receiving CSN Houston immediately.”

The Suddenlink letter invited Hutchings to submit a carriage counterproposal “in an effort to find common ground.” McCaskill wrote that if CSN Houston wants to be on expanded basic, “we would gladly consider a substantially lower price for carriage on a substantially larger (more widely distributed) tier. This point is critical.”

She added, “We have an obligation to be responsive to our customers and are thus fucosed on finding a way to make CSN Houston available to those in the Houston area who want it, without forcing the cost on others.”

Hutchings, in a statement released Friday afternoon, said Suddenlink is being unfair to Astros and Rockets fans, particularly in comparison to Dallas-Fort Worth area fans.

“Suddenlink maintains that Dallas’ Fox Sports Southwest and virtually every other RSN in the country—except CSN Houston— deserves distribution across their territory on an expanded basic tier,” Hutchings said.

“The fact that they feel Astros and Rockets fans are not worthy of the same treatment does not make any sense. Pure and simple, Suddenlink just doesn’t want to give the fans the product, and that’s a shame considering that most of their customers recently burdened an increase in their monthly bills.”